The New England Fellowship of Agricultural Adventurers recently presented Marge Kilkelly of Dresden with the 2024 Agricultural Adventurers Award.
Randall Orchards of Standish also received the award.
Marge Kilkelly, center, received the Eastern States Exposition Agricultural Adventurers Award, presented by Eugene Cassidy, ESE president and CEO, left, and Steve Taylor, ESE trustee and chair of the Agricultural Adventurers committee. Submitted photo
The award, sponsored by Eastern States Exposition, is given annually to individuals or families on the basis of innovation, pioneering and lifetime dedication to the betterment of agriculture. ESE officials visited both recipients in Maine to present the distinction on June 11, according to a news release from the Fellowship.
Kilkelly is recognized for her local, national and international work in agriculture, ag education and agritourism.
Kilkelly, and her husband Joseph Murray, own and operate Dragonfly Cove Farm, where they raise cashmere goats, poultry, and pigs providing meat, eggs and fiber to local restaurants and consumers. The farm has a commercial kitchen, which they use for cooking classes and the filming of “Nourishing Maine,” a culinary show designed to enhance knowledge of Maine products and home cooking.
Kilkelly holds a Masters of Science degree in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University. She has focused her work on rural economic development and creating opportunities for a robust rural economy. Agritourism is an integral part of her farm’s activities, and she believes that agritourism is education of the public about agriculture and essential to understanding the need for a robust ag policy.
She has served as the school nutrition director for the Boothbay Region Schools and has traveled the world as an Eisenhower Fellow, a Fleming Fellow, a New England Rural Leaders Fellow and a Brooks Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, and completed a two-year leadership academy with the New England Farm Bureau.
Kilkelly served in the Maine Legislature for 16 years, 10 in the House and six in the Senate, and chaired the standing committees on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry; Inland Fish and Wildlife and numerous study committees. She authored the law creating the Maine meat inspection program, as well as co-sponsoring the bill that created the Maine Board of Ag.
She left the legislature in 2002 to take a position with the Council of State Governments – Eastern Region, which serves state elected officials in 10 northeast states, six Eastern Canadian provinces, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Her position was Director of the Northeast States Association for Agricultural Stewardship — a group that she co-founded to give a stronger voice to the Northeast on federal agricultural policy.
She led a Dairy Trade Mission to Inner Mongolia in 2005. The team consisted of three legislators who were also dairy farmers, from Maine, New York and Pennsylvania.
In anticipation of the 2008 Farm Bill, she spent a week in Puerto Rico in 2007 with the House Ag Chair learning about tropical agriculture and unique issues facing their growers. She also assisted in staffing the State Ag and Rural Leaders (SARL) Ag Chairs Summits for many years.
She was promoted to Deputy Director of the regional office in 2009, overseeing all policy areas in 10 northeast states, six Eastern Canadian provinces, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
In 2011, she was elected president of the newly formed New England Farmers Union, a position she held briefly before being recruited by then Gov. Angus King as his Policy Director for his 2012 US Senate Campaign. After the election, she spent six years as his Senior Policy Advisor in Washington, D.C.
From 2019 to 2021, through the height of the pandemic, she was the Policy Director of the Maine Primary Care Association which serves all of Maine’s Community Health Centers.
She is the Northeast Regional Representative for the National Pet Food Institute. Currently, she is a member of the Maine Council of Churches Board of Directors, Global Agritourism Network serving on the Policy Committee, College Advisory Board, University of Maine College of Earth, Life, and Health Sciences.
She was appointed to the Maine Board of Agriculture by Gov. Janet Mills in 2019 and was elected Chair in 2024.
Randall Orchards is recognized for its growth, diversification and for protecting its precious land against outside development.
Randall Orchards received the Eastern States Exposition Agricultural Adventurers Award, presented by Eugene Cassidy, ESE president and CEO, left, and Donald Marean, right, ESE trustee and Agricultural Adventurers committee member. Receiving the award are Richard Randall, center left, and Robert Randall, center right. Submitted photo
The four-generation family farm has survived many changes in its 110-plus year history. With several hundred acres within the shadow of Portland, it has received tremendous pressure from real estate developers, yet remains an agricultural entity, thanks to the efforts of third-generation owner, the late Richard Randall. In 2014, concerned about the continued future of the farm to remain fully intact, he placed an agricultural conservation easement on the property, made possible through the Presumpscot River Land Trust and a grant by the Land For Maine’s Future, a state committee appointed by the governor to preserve working farms and open spaces.
This action protects 297 acres of farmland and forest. Additionally, there is a conservation easement protecting 185 acres of mostly wooded property. He passed the following year, knowing the farm would remain in perpetuity. His son, Robert, assumed ownership of the farm and has expanded its offerings.
Randall Orchards’ operations center around growing classic apple varieties. Innovation enters this traditional model in how the farm has diversified its products and services. In terms of production, they have increased the variety of apples grown and have also created or shifted sections to grow other crops, including tree fruits, blueberries and vegetables.
They have further diversified operations to include an on-farm store (featuring both their own produce and other local products), “U-pick” apple areas, and distribution of cider to sellers throughout the region. The cider operation takes place, beginning to end, on the farm and produces several thousand gallons of product annually. In 2022, they ventured into the Christmas tree business to extend their store hours and the business season.
The 400-plus acres of the orchard represent important rural open space in an area that is quickly developing with houses and roads. This helps to maintain the character of the historic towns of Gorham and Standish. The mature forest on the property also provides excellent wildlife habitat.
A variety of recreational opportunities take place on the land. Two loop trails of about three miles in length offer walking, biking and other low-impact recreation. Snowmobiles also use the trails and orchard, and the land is also popular with hunters. The orchard is also a host site for a number of land trust events, including the Presumpscot Regional Land Trust’s annual meeting in the fall and an extremely popular full moon snowshoe each January.
The farm has broadened its offerings and caters to the public by hosting weddings and public gathering events. They have, with the help of the land trusts, developed hiking trails and educational agricultural and conservation events. By doing so, the farm has structured itself for its agricultural future.
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